How it works
The email arrives looking like an automated YouTube notice. It names one of your videos, sometimes with a real thumbnail pulled from your channel, and says a third party filed a copyright claim. The pitch is that if you do nothing within 24 or 48 hours the video comes down and your channel takes a strike. A button labeled something like "Submit a counter-notification" or "Appeal this claim" points at a page built to look like YouTube Studio or a Google account login. Whatever you type there goes straight to the attacker. Some versions capture your password and then immediately ask for your 2FA code, because they are logging into your real account while you sit on the page.
The thing that gives it away is where the message comes from and where the link goes. Real copyright actions show up inside YouTube Studio under Content and Copyright, and YouTube's own emails link to studio.youtube.com. They do not route you through a shortener or a domain you have never seen.
The tell-tale signals
- The sender is a free Gmail, Outlook, or similar address, or a domain registered a few weeks ago, not a Google-owned domain.
- The sending domain publishes no SPF or DMARC record, so anyone can spoof it.
- The button text shows youtube.com or google.com but the real link goes to a different host.
- The destination is hidden behind a link shortener.
- A countdown or a "final notice within 24 hours" deadline is doing the pushing.
- The sign-in page you land on is not on accounts.google.com.
What to do
Do not click the dispute link. Open a new tab, go to studio.youtube.com yourself, and check the Content and Copyright sections. If there is no claim there, the email is fake and you can delete it. If you want certainty about whether the message came from YouTube, paste it into LegitSponsor and read the sender and link evidence instead of trusting the branding. Never type your Google password into a page you reached from an email link. Add a passkey or a hardware security key to your Google account so a stolen password alone cannot open your channel, and if you are eligible, enroll in Google's Advanced Protection Program.